Les CottrellJan 2016
Balloons
The Google Project Loon weather balloons fly at 12 miles in the stratosphere. Beneath each lighter-than-air balloon are hung: two radio transceivers to receive and send data streams, plus a third back-up radio; a flight computer and GPS location tracker; an altitude control system, which is used to move the balloon up and down to find winds that will take it in the desired direction; solar panels to power all the gear. They are moved up and down to find the right winds to direct them into position usually travelling along an easterly or westerly latitude. Balloons regularly stay aloft for 150 days. Cover a circular area spanning 50 miles diameter. Balloons transmit using radio frequency and can also transmit to each other (up to 100km apart transferring data at ~500Mbps) to extend the Internet where there is no base station nearby. Can now supply connected devices with about 10 megabits a second to connected devices via antennae on the ground. Mike Cassidy, who heads project Loon, believes the total cost for Internet from balloons could be 10% or even 1% of Internet from satellites. He anticipates paying customers to be connecting to its web of balloons by 2016. See http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-internets-future-lies-up-in-the-skies-1418603566. Google's balloons are already active. Indeed, the firm hopes to start providing connections to early adopters in Indonesia and Sri Lanka soon."We put transponders on all our balloons, which is not required," says Mr Cassidy, "so, just like an aeroplane, air traffic control can always see where the balloons are." http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34780127. "[We need] about 300 balloons or so to make a continuous string around the world." Google believes it is on course to have enough internet-beaming balloons in the stratosphere to form a ring over part of the world next year. The declaration coincides with the announcement that three of Indonesia's mobile networks intend to start testing Project Loon's transmissions next year. Sri Lanka previously signed a separate agreement signaling its wish to be another participant in the giant helium balloon-based scheme. See http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34660205
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